Die presses



March 31, 1959 M. BALSAM DIE PRESSES 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed March 2, 1954 IN V EN TOR.

MAURICE m. BALsAm BY www M. M. BALSAM March 31, 1959 DIE PRESSES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed March 2, 1954 1/ 5 w 4 Wm m f r l "y y W Mi n w 3 F WL. 5 6:9 a l Luna ML HMHHHWELT me ne e u n 5 M1 9 Hill u 3" A a 4, y 4 3 4 Q o 0 m 5 2 m, M F Y B United States Patent G Continuation of abandoned application Serial No. 413,660, March 2, 1954. This application September 6, 1956, Serial No. 608,248

4 Claims. (CL 153-1) The present invention relates to die presses particularly of the type which are used in the manufacture of handbags. The present application is a continuation of my application Serial No. 413,660 filed March 2, 1954, now abandoned.

As is well known, handbags include a pair of substantially U-shaped framemembers which are hingedly connected together for closing and opening the handbag. Each of these U-shaped members has a pair opposite sides known in the trade as gussets and between the gussets is located a: part of the frame which is known in the trade as a top. These frame members are of a U-shaped cross section toform channels into which material of the handbag is pinchedby dies which press the sides of the top and gussets of each frame toward each other.

At the present time there are several disadvantages in the known presses which operate on the frame parts of handbags to clamp the material of the handbag therein. Thus, it is conventional to provide only tops clamping dies on one machine and gusset clampin dies on another machine so that two machines and two operators are required to perform the necessary operation on each frame part. Furthermore, the acting faces of the known tops and gusset dies do not efiiciently press the sides of the frametoward each other for clamping the material of the handbag therein. Also, it is necessary for the operators of the known die presses to apply considerably large forces through relatively long distances to the presses in order to move a die thereof with sufficient force.

One of the objects of the present invention is to overcome the above drawbacks by providing a single machine capable of acting on both the tops and the gussets of frame members for clamping material thereto, so that one operator can perform both operations on a single machine.

A further object of the present invention is to provide the dies with acting faces which engage the material to be worked .on and which operate on the same in a manner which is far superior to the action provided by known dies.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a press of the above type with a power transmitting means which is capable of converting a relatively small amount of power put into the machine by the operator into an extremely large force with a relatively small movement of the press part which is actuated by the operator.

An additional object of the present invention is to pro- 'vide an apparatus capable of accomplishing all of the above objects and at the same time being made up of simple and ruggedly constructed parts which are very reliable in operation.

which a stationary tops die is connected. A stationary gusset die is also connected to the head and is spaced from the stationary tops die. A movable tops die is located opposite the stationary tops die, and a movable ice gusset die islocated opposite the stationary gusset die. Finally, a movingmeans is connected to the movable dies for. simultaneouslytmoving the movable tops and gusset dies toward the stationary tops and gusset dies, respectively. Also, the press of the invention includes a support means on which a diecarrying means is mounted for movement through an operating stroke from a rest position to a pressing position. A toggle linkage means is operatively connected to the die carrying means for transmitting movement thereto, this toggle linkage means being substantially in its dead center position when the die carrying means is in its pressing position.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are. set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a partly sectional elevational view of a die press constructed in accordance with the present invention, the section of Fig. 1 being taken along a vertical plane which extends from the front to the rear of the die press and which passes vertically therethrough.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view of the top front portion of the die press as seen from the left side of Fig. l; and

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view of a toggle linkage of Fig. 1 shown in a different position from that illustrated in Fig. l.

Referring now to the drawings, it will be seen from Fig. 1 that the press of the invention includes a support means in the form of a frame 10 on which a press head 11 is fixedly mounted, this frame 10 being, for example, in the form of a small metal table 10 on which the press head 11 is fixed. This table 10 includes a top 12 and four legs 13 interconnected by horizontally extending braces 14. Only three braces 14 are provided at approximately an intermediate level of the legs 13, the rear brace 14 being omitted. Instead,a pair of bars 15 are fixed to the rear legs 13, extend toward each other and have rearwardly extending free ends 16 which define therebetween a space into which a foot-operated lever 17 extends, this lever being pivotally carried by the frame 10 through the medium of a pivot pin 18 which extends through the rear end portion of lever 17 and which is carried by the ends 16 and bars 15.

A link 19 is pivotally connected at its bottom end to the lever 17 and is pivotally connected at its top end to one end portion of a toggle member 20. Actually, there are two links 19 which are in exact alignment with each other and which extend on opposite sides of the lever 17 and on opposite sides of the toggle 20 and which carry the pivot pins which respectively extend through the lever 17 and the toggle 20 for pivotally connecting the links 19 thereto.

The top 12 of the frame 10 is formed with a cutout extending inwardly from the rear edge thereof, and the toggle member 20 extends into this cutout. Also, the top 12 has between the two rear legs 13 of the frame 10 a pair of ears which extend downwardly from the top of the table and which carry a pivot pin 21 extending through a bore of toggle member 20 intermediate the ends thereof to pivotally support the toggle member 20. The press head 11 is substantially U-shaped and is in the form of a pair of side walls 22 interconnected by a web 23, this web also being formed with a cutout extending inwardly from the rear of press head 11 and through which the toggle member 20 extends into the space between the side walls 22 of the press head 11.

A pair of links 24, which act as the other toggle memher to cooperate with toggle member 20, have lower end portions located on opposite sides of the end portion of toggle 20 distant from the link 19, the toggle members 24 being pivotally connected to this end portion of toggle member 20 through the medium of a pivot pin carried -by the members 24 and extending through a bore of the toggle member 20 Thus, the members 24 are pivotally connected to the toggle 20 by the pivot pin 25. I

The ends of members 24 distant from toggle 20 extend on opposite sides of a link 26 and are pivotally connected thereto by a pivot pin 27 which is carried by themembers 24 and extends through a bore in the right end of link 26, as viewed in Fig. 1. This link 26 extends between the side walls 28 of the lever 29 which has a U-shaped cross section, the side walls 28 being interconnected by a web 30 of lever 29. The side walls 28 carry pivot pin 31 which extends through a bore in an end portion of link 26- distant from toggle member 24 so that ;the link-26 is thus pivotally connected to lever 29. The web 30 is threadedly bored and threadedly carries an adjacent screw 32 which engages the link 26 for a purpose described below.- p

The lever- 29 is pivotally connected to the head 11 through the medium of a pivot pin 33 which is carried by the sidewalls 22 of head 11 and which extends through aligned bores in the sidewalls 28 of lever 29.

The front end of the press head 11 is formed with an elongated slot 34 through which a link 35 extends, this press head being quite massive and made of one casting which is provided with the side walls 22 and the front end extending across the side walls and formed with the slot 34. The link 35 is pivotally connected to the lever 29 by a pivot pin 36 which is carried by the side walls 28 of lever 29 and which extends through a bore of the link 35. The front end of the press head 11 is further formed with a guideway 37 considerably wider than the slot 34, communicating therewith, and extending laterally to opposite sides thereof. A block 38 having a width corresponding to the width of guideway 37 is slidably mounted in this guideway for movement up and down the same, and the rear face of block 38 is formed with a cutout 39 into which the lower end of link 35, as viewed in Fig. 1, extends, a pivot pin 40 being fixed to and extending across the cutout 39 and passing through a bore formed in link 35 to pivotally connect the latter to block 38.

The press head also includes a front top portion 41 which extends across the guideway 37 and which is rigid with the remainder of the press head as die being formed integrally therewith. A hinge 42 is connected to the front face of portion 41 of the press head and serves to hingedly connect thereto a stationary tops die 43 which is elongated and extends in a substantially horizontal direction across the guideway 37, this topsdie 43 having a lower acting face 44 extending alongits; bottom edge, as viewed in Figs l and 2.

Also, a stationary gusset die 45 is fixed to the press head, as by bolts 46 shown in Fig, 2, and this stationary gusset die 45 also extends acrossthe guideway 37 and is parallel to the stationary tops die 43. The stationary gusset die 45 is provided with a bottom acting face 47 to engage the material to be acted on, and it will be noted that this face 47 as well as the face 44 of stationary die 43 are flat.

A movable tops die 48 is connected by bolts 49 to the block 38 and is parallel to the stationary tops die 43 and extends across the guideway 37. This movable tops die 48 has a top acting face 50 which is parallel to the acting face 44 of the stationary tops die 43 except for a groove 51 formed along the acting face 50 adjacent to the inner face of die 48 which abuts against the block 38 and which is located next to the press head.

A movable gusset die 52 is fixed by bolts 53 to the bottom face of block 38 and extends forwardly therefrom, this die 52 being parallel" to the remaining dies and having a top acting face 54 which is parallel to acting face 47 of die 45 except for a groove 55 extending along acting face 54 and being located next to the guide block 38 and the presser head.

It should be noted that the toggle member 20 is provided with a projecting portion 56 which engages the underside of the top 12 of frame 10 for a purpose described below. U

The above described structure operates as follows:

The parts of the press are in the rest position thereof shown in Fig. 1 when the press is not in use. Assuming that the operator now wishes to clamp together the top portion of the U-shaped frame of a handbag, he places this top portion between the stationary tops die 43 and the movable tops die 48, and then the operator presses with his foot against the pedal 57 of the lever 17 to turn the latter in a counterclockwise direction about the pivot 18. This action will pull the links 19 downwardly against the action of a spring 58 which is connected to a pin 59 carried by and extending between the links 19 and to an eye 60 fixed tothe underside of table top 12, this spring 58 serving to return the parts to the rest position shown in Fig. 1.

The downward movement of links-19 causes toggle member 20 to turn in a clockwise direction about pivot 21 until the toggle member 20 reaches a position shown in Fig. 3 where the projection 56 engages the underside of table top 12 to prevent further turning of toggle 20. It will be noted that in this end position of the parts the pivotal connections 21, 25, and 27 are located substantially along a straight line which represents the dead center position of the toggle mechanism.

The turning of toggle member 20 acts through toggle member 24 to raise link 26 which engages adjusting screw 32 to turn the lever 29 in a counterclockwise direction about pin 33, as viewed in Fig. 1, so that the link 35 is raised to move the block 38 upwardly from its rest position toward its end pressing position where the acting face 50 is located very closely adjacent to acting face 44 for pinching together the side wall portions of the top of the frame part which has a U-shaped cross section, as was pointed out above.

The web of the top of the frame part up to which the material of the handbag extends is located over the groove 51, while the free edges of the frame part are located distant from the groove 51 and nearer to the operator. Thus, the side walls of the top of the frame will be pressed toward each other by the acting faces 44 and 50 of the dies 43 and 48, respectively, and the web of the top of the frame member will be able to move into the groove 51. It has been found that this construction of the dies where the acting faces thereof are parallel to each other except for a groove such as groove 51 very efiiciently pinches and clamps thev material of' the. handbag to the framethereof; The action produced by this constructionv is far superior to the action produced by conventional dieswhere the acting'faces are not parallel to each other so that the frame is not clamped tothe same extent by the known dies.

It is pointed out that the top portion of the U-shaped frame members of handbags usually carries a handbag locking structure, and the stationary die 43 is hingedly mounted to enable this die 43 to be turned upwardly and placed over this locking structure which then becomes located in the guideway 37 behind the die 43 during operation of the press of the invention. The die 48 is located at a relatively small distance from the die 43 when the press is in its rest position, and this small distance is not sufiicient to allow the locking structures of most handbags to pass therethrough.

Attention is further invited to the fact that the parts are so designed that the die 48 is located in its end pressing position when the toggle linkage is located in the position shown in Fig. 3. Thus, as the 'die'member 48 approaches the end of its operating stroke, the toggle mechanism is almost in its dead center position to act substantially as a single rigid bar which provides a tremendous push on the movable dies with a relatively small force applied to the pedal 57, and the fact that the dies need only move through a relatively short distance greatly cuts down on the. distance through. which the pedal 57 must be moved.

After the above operations are completed the operator 1 l releases thetpedal 57, andthe spring 58 returns the parts to the position shown in Fig. 1, the lever 29 turning during this part of the operation in a clockwise direction about the pivot 33, as viewed in Fig. 1, so that the link 35 moves downwardly to lower the block 38 and the die 48.

The operator now removes the frame from between the tops dies 43 and 48 and locates one of the gussets of the frame between the stationary gusset die 45 and the movable gusset die 52, and then all of the above operations are repeated, the groove 55 acting in the same way as the groove 51, and the parallel acting faces 47 and 54 providing an efiicicnt clamping of the material of the handbag to the frame thereof. Thus, it is possible for one operator to perform all of the operations on the handbag frames with one machine. Of course, the dies 48 and 52 move simultaneously toward the dies 43 and 45, respectively.

The screw 32 is turned to adjust the space between the stationary dies and movable dies, respectively. Thus, when the parts are in the rest position shown in Fig. 1. the elements 26, 24, 20, 19 and 17 will remain in the position illustrated, while turning of the screw 32 will turn the lever 29 about the pivot 33 with respect to the link 26 to lower or raise the pivot pin 36 for lowering or raising the link 35 of the block 38 and dies 48 and 52 therewith. Thus, the screw 32 is capable of adjusting distance between the dies and is capable of very accurately setting the machine so that the tops dies will be located closest to each other and so that the gusset dies will be located closest to each other when the toggle mechanism is at the position shown in Fig. 3.

Such adjustments are necessary when the machine acts on material of different thicknesses, because with thicker materials it will be necessary to locate the movable dies further from the stationary dies, respectively, when the movable dies are in their end pressing position. It is pointed out that the engagement between the projection 56 with the underside of table top 12, which acts as a .stop, insures that the toggle mechanism will not be moved beyond its dead center position irrespective of the adjustment provided with the screw 32.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of die presses differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and de scribed as embodied in frame clamping presses, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

l. A press for clamping frames of handbags and the .like, comprising, in combination, a press head having a amass dies; a movable tops die and a movable gusset die also extending across said guideway, being respectively located on opposite sides of said one die, and being connected to said block for movement therewith, said movable tops, die being located opposite said stationary tops die and' said movable gusset die being located opposite said stationary gusset die, said movable dies being substantially parallel to each other and said stationary dies and being spaced from each other by a distance substantially equal. to the distance between said stationary dies; at first linkage means turnably connected to said press head and to said block for moving the latter along said press head duringturning of said first linkage means, said first linkage means including a lever turnably mounted on said press head, a first link pivotally connected to said lever andblock for transmitting movement of said lever to said block, and a second link connected to said lever for movement therewith and being pivotally connected to said toggle linkage means; a second, toggle linkage means operatively connected to said first linkage means for operating the latter and being located substantially at its dead center position when said movable dies are located at the end of their movement toward said stationary dies; means operable by the operator for moving said toggle llinkage means toward said dead center position thereof; and a spring operatively connected to said frame and one of said means for automatically moving said movable dies away from said stationary dies toward a rest position.

2. A press head as defined in claim 1 and wherein said lever is in the form of a channel member having opposite sides interconnected by a web, said first link having an end portion located between and pivotally connected to said opposite sides of said lever and said second link being partly located between and pivotally connected to said opposite sides of said lever, and a screw member threadedly extending through said web and engaging said second link to adjust the position thereof with respect to said lever so as to thereby adjust the rest position of said block and movable dies.

3. A press as defined in claim 2, one of said tops dies and one of said gusset dies being formed with a groove extending along its acting face and located next to said press head.

4. A press for clamping frames of handbags and the like, comprising, in combination, a press head having a front end formed with an elongated guideway; a frame carrying said press head; a block slidably located in said guideway for movement along said press head; a stationary tops die and a stationary gusset die spaced from and being substantially parallel to each other, each extending across said guideway, and being connected to said head, said block extending across one of said stationary dies; a movable tops die and a movable gusset die also extending across said guideway, being respectively located on opposite sides of said one die, and being connected to said block for movement therewith, said movable tops die being located opposite said stationary tops die and said movable gusset die being located opposite said stationary gusset die; said movable dies being substantially parallel to each other and said stationary dies and being spaced from each other by a distance substantially equal to the distance between said stationary dies; a first linkage means turnably connected to said press head and to said block for moving the latter along said press head during turning of said first linkage means; a second, toggle linkage means operatively connected to said first linkage means for operating the latter and being located substantially at its dead center position when said movable diesare located atvthe end of. their movement toward said stationary dies, said toggle linkage means having a projection engaging said frame when said toggle linkage means is substantially at its dead center position to prevent movement of said toggle linkage means beyond said position; means operable by the operator for moving said toggle linkage means toward said dead center position thereof; and a spring operatively connected to said frame and one of said means for automatically moving said movable dies away from said stationary dies toward a rest position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Rosenthal Apr. 28, 1953 

